I think who controls the stake and how they acquired it plays a big roll in the problems with Steem's reward pool.  People who see themselves as "investors" separate themselves from the content, and worry only about how to make their stake earn them more money.  The obvious answer on that is vote selling, or self voting.  So you have these big whales who only care about increasing their own stack, without any concern for what is going on closer to the surface.

The problem is, i is those of us who swim near the surface who really impact the price movement on STEEM as a cryptocurrency.  If the entire platform were devoid of good content, and showed no signs of value, then how long would it take for the STEEM token to bleed to zero?  Last time I checked, any stake multiplied by zero is still zero.  So the Investment Whales need the rest of us... but to this point, few of them have realized that it would pay them in the long term to be quality curators.

Don't get me started on STInc's stake and the use it is or isn't put to.... I could write novels. hahhaa

Have a great one!  Keep supporting each other, and the end result will be satisfying!